Are You a Ninja Contractor

Tyler Blevins aka Ninja https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ninja_(streamer) is an expert and dominates his market. Ninja is a professional video gamer, who made over $10 mil in 2018 live streaming himself playing Fortnite, an online cooperative shooter game developed by Epic Games who as a side note raked in $3 billion in profit from the game.

Ninja’s expertise at the craft of Fortnite is unparalleled. He does one thing and does it better than anyone else in the world. He doesn’t play Pac Man or Donkey Kong, (I realize I am dating myself here) he plays Fortnite 12 hours a day EVERY DAY!!!! So it comes as no surprise that he said in a recent interview that he feels burned out. No shit! And whether you make $25/hr or $1000/hr any job done with that commitment can become a grind.

That grind is similar to what contractors face in their business. Getting up every day and lacing up the boots or cracking the laptop can wear you down to the nub. The question is not whether the job is a grind, the better question is this; Since you are grinding anyways, shouldn’t you be be an expert and dominate your market? What would be your equivalent to Ninja’s model? What should you be doing over and over again for 12 hours a day that no one else can do better? Are you a kitchen cabinet installer? Then are you the best? If not, then why? What do you need to become the best? These are just a few of the many questions that you should be asking yourself as contractor if you want to take you and your business to the next level.

Now I’m not suggesting you have to become the best kitchen cabinet installer in the world, that isn’t relevant here. What I am suggesting is that you become the best installer in YOUR market, or the best framer, plumber, drywall hanger, design build firm, etc. You get the idea.

Mimic these 4 traits from Ninja to dominate your market.

Focus on 1 thing and 1 thing only

Ninja has been a professional gamer since 2009, but made his name when Fortnite arrived in 2017 and then proceeded to master it and grew his followers at an astounding rate. I doubt he ever intended or planned on the success that he has now, but his success nonetheless has come from his death grip focus on that single game. Imagine if you picked 1 thing from your business and specialized and dominated in that same way.

Be there first

Ninja got started right when Fortnite started and pulled away from the pack to become the leader in the space. Find the next upcoming trend in your business and be first in the market. This will give you a head start among your competition. Most trades will not do this as they are too entrenched in their current business models to make a shift. A recent example of this is solar. I remember when residential solar started to take off. Several colleagues of mine moved into the space and made names for themselves and got ahead of the pack. They took the opportunity to get in front early and made great money in the process. Keep your eyes open for the next development in construction and get out front.

Dominate

This one is the easiest to see. Ninja dominates the space because he dominates the game and people want to associate with the best. The time he commits to the game is mind numbing, but it’s that level of dedication that gets him paid. There are many of you out there that work the same hours yet don’t reap even a portion of the reward. Most likely it’s your lack of focus and dedication to one particular thing which keeps you from being good enough to dominate anything.

Marketing

Ninja is a shameless self promoter (and I’m saying that as a compliment) and you have to be in order to put yourself in front of the world every day. Imagine if you did just 1% of that kind of marketing and were able to communicate to your customers who you are and what you are about. This part of the equation cannot be over emphasized. You can have the best product or service in the world, but if your customers don’t know you exist then it doesn’t matter. I love what Grant Cardone says about this. “Your business’s number one problem is obscurity”. Get out there and let them know you are open for business.

Who do you want to be? A Jack of all trades and master of none? Or an expert at………… something, anything! Imagine the pride you would feel waking up every day knowing you are leading your market. You don’t experience that now because you know you are just one of the herd. Separate yourself from the pack and figure out what game you want to dominate.